Bally Sports headed for bankruptcy

[Renslayer]

This is real bad:

Meanwhile, pro teams relying on TV rights revenue from their deals with the 19 Bally Sports RSNs will face severe belt-tightening, since rights deals with them can be terminated amid the restructuring.

For example, MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals have been identified(opens in new tab) as a franchise likely to take one of the hardest blows, since so much of its revenue comes from RSN TV rights.

The leagues are gonna have to figure something out real soon.

[sfvega]

The death of RSNs is fantastic. It sucks from a business standpoint, but local blackouts because an entity overpaid for exclusive rights is everything wrong with the industry to begin with. Cardinals will find someone to pay for their rights, but they're a strong market regardless. Great attendance, merchandise, valuation to borrow against, etc.

[Burst]

Bally Pinball, Bally Total Fitness, Bally Regional Sports... it's almost like the Bally name itself is cursed at this point.

[HMARK Center]

Way too much of pro sports revenue has been built on a RSN bubble, and the burst is approaching.

Who'd have guessed that chasing after every short term dollar imaginable might lead to long term problems in terms of creating new fans, making the games accessible to young people, and generally keeping interest in the leagues higher.

[Renslayer]

Jan 27, 2023 12:29:19 GMT -5 sfvega said:

The death of RSNs is fantastic. It sucks from a business standpoint, but local blackouts because an entity overpaid for exclusive rights is everything wrong with the industry to begin with. Cardinals will find someone to pay for their rights, but they're a strong market regardless. Great attendance, merchandise, valuation to borrow against, etc.

Got one more to add on to this

[sfvega]

Feb 24, 2023 18:02:08 GMT -5 Renslayer said:

Jan 27, 2023 12:29:19 GMT -5 sfvega said:

The death of RSNs is fantastic. It sucks from a business standpoint, but local blackouts because an entity overpaid for exclusive rights is everything wrong with the industry to begin with. Cardinals will find someone to pay for their rights, but they're a strong market regardless. Great attendance, merchandise, valuation to borrow against, etc.

Got one more to add on to this

When it rains, it pours (for blackouts). I love it. Now stop overpaying for WWE's rights and all will be right with the world.

[ToyfareMark]

Seems like this is more of a baseball problem then anything. Especially in the age of college conferences, and pro sports leagues having their own channels and Sunday Ticket type services.

[Deleted]

Mar 7, 2023 11:10:36 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

Seems like this is more of a baseball problem then anything. Especially in the age of college conferences, and pro sports leagues having their own channels and Sunday Ticket type services.

Eh, I think MLB is actually best suited to ride the storm out and create their own in-house service with broadcasters and equipment to broadcast the games.

It's the NHL that's the most likely to be screwed over.

[ToyfareMark]

Mar 7, 2023 12:36:44 GMT -5 @jdogindy said:

Mar 7, 2023 11:10:36 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

Seems like this is more of a baseball problem then anything. Especially in the age of college conferences, and pro sports leagues having their own channels and Sunday Ticket type services.

Eh, I think MLB is actually best suited to ride the storm out and create their own in-house service with broadcasters and equipment to broadcast the games.

It's the NHL that's the most likely to be screwed over.

I dunno, I can watch any NHL game on Hulu, live or on demand. And that's with not even having the live TV bundle, though I do have the Disney+ bundle.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

Mar 7, 2023 15:51:45 GMT -5 ToyfareMark said:

Mar 7, 2023 12:36:44 GMT -5 @jdogindy said:

Eh, I think MLB is actually best suited to ride the storm out and create their own in-house service with broadcasters and equipment to broadcast the games.

It's the NHL that's the most likely to be screwed over.

I dunno, I can watch any NHL game on Hulu, live or on demand. And that's with not even having the live TV bundle, though I do have the Disney+ bundle.

I recommend UrinatingTree's take on all this, he actually says Baseball is in the best shape to handle this and the NHL's the biggest question mark for a variety of reasons.

[Renslayer]

And we're here

[Renslayer]

A great development out of all of this

[salz4life]

Apr 28, 2023 8:41:53 GMT -5 Renslayer said:

A great development out of all of this

Isn't this how it used to be? Here in Chicago, the Cubs, Bulls, White Sox (until SportsVision was created, but then they came back for a bit) and I think the Blackhawks were all on WGN. Then the Regional Sports Networks came along with less and less games being put on WGN. I don't think any of them have games on WGN anymore, but I could be wrong (maybe the Bulls and Blackhawks have a few, but I'm not sure).

[burdette25159]

awfulannouncing.com/mlb/san-diego-padres-media-rights-diamond-sports-missed-payment.html

[HMARK Center]

Apr 28, 2023 12:07:22 GMT -5 salz4life said:

Apr 28, 2023 8:41:53 GMT -5 Renslayer said:

A great development out of all of this

Isn't this how it used to be? Here in Chicago, the Cubs, Bulls, White Sox (until SportsVision was created, but then they came back for a bit) and I think the Blackhawks were all on WGN. Then the Regional Sports Networks came along with less and less games being put on WGN. I don't think any of them have games on WGN anymore, but I could be wrong (maybe the Bulls and Blackhawks have a few, but I'm not sure).

WGN and TBS (along with WWOR here in the NYC area) were exceptions to how this usually worked, given their "superstation" statuses that carried some local content across different regions of the country. Either way, the big difference with the RSN model has been that you now get access to every game a team plays, but on a super local cable channel instead of one of these bigger platforms; when the Mets were on WWOR, for example, you'd only get maybe a couple of games a week on there.

[Renslayer]

Clown show

[Renslayer]

So it looks Bally will be outta here by the end of next baseball season

awfulannouncing.com/bally/bankruptcy-judge-approves-nba-bally-sports-sinclair-mlb.html